Imam behind NYC mosque back in US after Gulf trip

By CRISTIAN SALAZAR | AP

NEW YORK: An imam who has become the public face of a proposed Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero has returned to the United States following a State Department-funded tour of the Middle East, his wife said Tuesday.

Daisy Khan said her husband, Feisal Abdul Rauf, planned to comment later this week on plans for a $100 million center that have led to an increasingly vitriolic national debate over religious freedom and the sensitivities of Sept. 11 families. She said they would have no further comments until then.

Khan, who has been a supporter of the project and leads a Muslim nonprofit organization with her husband, said Rauf returned Sunday from a 15-day trip to promote religious tolerance in the Gulf. The trip, paid for by the US Department of State, began Aug. 19 in Bahrain and included visits to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

In Rauf’s last scheduled public appearance in Dubai on Aug. 31, he said the debate is over more than “a piece of real estate.” It had, he said, “expanded to Islam in America and what it means for America.”

Comments

IBRAHIM DAWOOD

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Isn't it interesting that Muslim countries do not permit the practice of other religions yet expect other countries to be fair and just and allow us to practice Islam and build our mosques.
Look at Saudi arabia that does not allow the pracice of any other religion leave alone permitting the building for practice of other religions.
Hypocrisy is all we can expect from a nation that considerss itself the leader of Islam !

AHMED

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all muslim countries permit other religions to pratctice their faiths exept saudi arabia.does the vatican allow a losque there?no its a special place.yet hundreds of thousands of christians have lived in saudi arabia over the last 60 years without problems.

MAZ HASAN

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Most muslim countries permit that though, notably from Africa, South Asia, Far East & some from Gulf except Saudi Arabia & Iran.
More serious is the situation in Pakistan where the constitution guarantees protection & practice of other religions. State still does, but some people have different ideas. US masses are very tolerant , most agree for the relocation of the mosque at ground zero for obvious reasons.

BERTONOID

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And this is the man who preach the tolerance of islam.
Is not this another islamic hypocrisy?
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